Author Archives: dcaligari

July 23, 1950 –The Singing Cowboy Gene Autry’s series The Gene Autry Show, co-starring Pat Buttram, sponsored by Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum, debuted on CBS-TV, on this date. Two-thirds of the way through the first season’s production, Pat Buttram was severely injured in an explosion and was hospitalized for several months. In order to complete theContinue reading “The Gene Autry Show premiered”

July 23, 1983 –The Police kicked off the North American leg of their 107-date Synchronicity world tour at Comiskey Park (now rebuilt as U.S. Cellular Field) in Chicago, on this date. Co-incidentially, their fifth and last album, Synchronicity, hits #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. The album gained its title from Carl GustavContinue reading “Synchronicity topped the charts”

July 23, 1979 –Electric Light Orchestra dedicated the release, on this date, of the single Don’t Bring Me Down from their album Discovery to Skylab which had crashed back to Earth on July 11, 1979. (The song is the first Electric Light Orchestra single without any strings.) Don’t Bring Me Down became the biggest hitContinue reading “Don’t Bring Me Down dropped”

July 22, 1916In San Francisco, on this date, some 50,000 people marched in a Preparedness Day parade (the largest parade ever held in the city), supporting the US intervention in World War I. The event was sponsored by business leaders and opposed by labor. A bomb went off on Market St. during the parade andContinue reading “The 1916 San Francisco bombing”

July 22, 1977 –Stiff Records released Elvis Costello’s debut studio album, My Aim Is True, produced by Nick Lowe, on this date in the UK. The musicians who were featured on the album were uncredited on the original release (due to contractual difficulties), although the backing band was made up of members of the bandContinue reading “My Aim Is True dropped”

July 22, 1964 –One of Hitchcock’s most underrated (and sexually twisted) films, Marnie opened on this date. After rehearsing just a few scenes with Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren asked Alfred Hitchcock, “Marnie is supposed to be frigid, have you seen him?” referring to the young Connery. Hitchcock’s reply was reportedly, “Yes, my dear, it’s calledContinue reading “Marnie premiered”

July 22, 1959 –Either considered the worst or greatest film ever made, Ed Wood Jr’s sci-fi classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space, starring Bela Lugosi, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira and narrated by Criswell, opened in the US on this date. Bela Lugosi appears in footage shot just before his death, but withContinue reading “Grave Robbers from Outer Space!”

August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023:I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I’m a singer. So I sing. Anthony Dominick Benedetto, the last great saloon singer has passed.Continue reading “Tony Bennett”

July 21, 1899 –Ernest Hemingway was born on this date. He was young at the time of his birth. It was fine to be young. He drove an ambulance in the first world war. It wasn’t called the first world war then. It was called the war. It was one of those times when peopleContinue reading “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”

July 21, 1990 – Roger Waters staged an over-sized version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall near the Berlin Wall, on this date, to celebrate the actual wall’s fall several months earlier. Shot on Potsdamer Platz, the no man’s land between East and West Germany, the producers didn’t know if the area would be filled withContinue reading “The Wall performed in Berlin”